The Stars We Carry

Posted on Tue Jul 7th, 2026 @ 5:29pm by Lieutenant Kyren

2,061 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: [Episode 1: Into the Unknown]
Location: The Institute, Earth
Timeline: Two Days Before "Attention to Orders"

The day was bright, the sky impossibly blue. A light breeze carried the scent of cut grass across the gentle hills surrounding the Institute. White buildings rested quietly below them, their gardens and walking paths almost peaceful enough to forget why the place had been built. The sun shone overhead, but Kyren didn't feel its warmth.

"Do you really have to go?" Avel hugged so tight he was sure his ribs creaked. Even his ribs, supported by denser bones and stronger muscles than normal, protested. Sometimes she just didn't understand her own strength, enhanced to levels far beyond the norm for an El-Aurian. Barely shorter than Ky, the El-Aurian's unruly mane of auburn curls had long since escaped the braid she'd attempted that morning, and as usual she smiled through her tears.

"Your language is imprecise," Varek chided softly from the side. He had been trying very hard to learn and maintain typical Vulcan stoicism. Varek stood a short distance away, standing just apart from them without seeming distant, tall even for a Vulcan. His dark hair was tied neatly behind his head in a long tail, his posture painfully straight. "While he does not have to go, he does have a psychological need that must be fulfilled."

"Semantics," Ky gasped out as Avel finally set him down and he could breathe once again. He hugged her back, a bit more careful, not wanting to let go just yet, and neither did she. Ky turned his smile in Varek's direction, and with a very commendable arch of his eyebrow - the Vulcan was getting good at that - Varek came and joined them, wrapping his arms around both Avel and Ky. That was definitely not very Vulcan like, but he gave great hugs.

They held on to each other like they had as children, seeking comfort, reassurance that they didn't get elsewhere. Love. Long moments passed as Avel cried softly. Ky's eyes grew wet too, and he saw Varek's jaw working hard to hold back his own emotions.

"I wish you could come with me," Ky admitted with some pain. It wasn't possible though. Not all of the Zeta-9 children had managed to adapt to a 'normal' life in the Federation. Avel's carelessness with her strength and her dramatic mood swings, Varek's intense rage that had taken him over a decade to earn even a scrap of control, were the reasons they lived here at the Institute. Ky wasn't 'normal' either, just lucky that his neurotic behavior worked in his favor at times with his job in Starfleet, otherwise he'd be stuck here too.

Looking between them, it struck Ky how different they had each become. A Betazoid built to feel space itself. A Vulcan designed to control life with a touch. An El-Aurian whose perception drifted somewhere outside of normal spacetime.

They were Augments, the three of them, and the lost members of their found family, the survivors of the illegal experiments on Research Station Zeta-9 where they had been designed, created, and tested. Genomes planned out and altered from the norm, to increase strength, intelligence, and more. In their case, enhancing the extra senses that baseline members of their species could wield: telepathy, spatiotemporal awareness, biological manipulation through thoughts, and more. Such gifts never came without a cost, however. Ego, emotional regulation issues...violence... were often the price paid to be 'superior'. And the reason why The Institute existed, to give people like them a place to live in a supportive environment, but also to isolate them away from the general public amidst the peaceful walking paths, the fountains, the green hills.

Not that any of them were the next Khan Noonien Singh. Probably.

"You'll look for Thomas, while you're out there, right?" Avel asked as they slowly disentangled their limbs. He was the last surviving member of their family, the missing brother. Seven years ago, Thomas had run away, or vanished, or been abducted. They simply didn't know. Avel insisted he was still alive, wherever he was, and at times Ky thought he believed it himself too. Maybe felt the human Augment, the way that he felt his other siblings, the way they had all felt Mira's death seven years ago.

Mira. Who would have laughed the loudest at Avel's crushing hugs, or found a way to make Varek smile. Varek hadn't smiled in seven years now either. Mira and Thomas, whose shadows should be stretched out here on the hillside with them. Ky remembered how upset Thomas had been, and suspected her death was a big part of why he'd vanished.

Ky gave Avel a surprised look. "What makes you think he's in the Sigma Prime Quadrant?"

Avel's eyes gazed at some distant point as she spoke softly, "The universe is so much smaller than you know." As enigmatic as always. But there was some certainty to her tone as well.

Ky squeezed her shoulder. "I promise, I'll look for Thomas."

Varek nodded at that reassurance. "It would be good to know what he has been up to, and to see him again. Perhaps you will join him when you find him and bring both of you home. Perhaps this is why you feel the need to leave."

Ky winced. Felt the need 'to leave them', was the implication. He didn't try to explain, not again. It wasn't them he was running away from, or the fearful looks he got from people who knew what he was, or even worse, the people who knew what he was and wanted to use him for it. They knew that as a child he would stare at the stars for hours, inventing entire worlds in his mind and the people on those worlds. When he wasn't in the test shuttle, Ky had this spot on the station, made his bed under a massive window looking out into space. That's where his life belonged, out there among the stars.

"Maybe," he said quietly. "Maybe." He raised his eyes to the sky, though he could not see his stars. Could he give it all up, for them?

"You can take us with you, Ky!" Avel said suddenly refocusing, brightening. "Varek had an idea."

The pilot raised an eyebrow and looked up at the tall Vulcan man for an explanation.

"I have been studying mind melds as part of my meditations," he said. Well versed in the kinds of mind melds that were part of the experiements he'd endured, it was no surprise that Varek sought out the more traditional ways of his species like he studied all things Vulcan. "We four already share a connection, no matter the distance." He was including Thomas in that. "I believe that I can enhance that slightly. We wouldn't be sharing thoughts and feelings over light-years. But we could have a better understanding of each other's well being." The Vulcan ground his teeth together, holding back his feelings. "It would be...a...comfort...while you're away."

"Do it," Ky didn't hesitate. Unstable as they each could be, in their own ways, he didn't trust anyone else as much as he did his siblings. And he knew, he would want to know that they were okay as well when it would be impossible for him to be close by.

Avel clapped happily, and Varek nodded once more. The Vulcan reached out to place a hand on each of their chests, over their hearts. "Vulcans do it differently, katra points... I never get that right. Maybe I shouldn't..."

Ky placed a hand over the one pressed to his breastbone. "You do it your way." Avel nodded, and held his hand over her heart as well.

"Very well." Varek closed his eyes and reached out. There was danger here, far more than with a normal mind meld. Varek could manipulate and control biological procsses with his mind. It would be simple for him to stop a heart, for example. "My mind to your minds." Varek paused, his breathing controlled, even, but they could feel the slight termor in his hands as he gathered his confidence.

The breeze shifted around them, bringing new scents of flowers and ozone to enhanced noses, goosebumps to skin from the chill in the air.

"My love and your love."

Ky smiled broadly. He didn't do that often, so much of his life was spent in this constant pursuit of perfection and didn't give him much cause to smile. But with his siblings it was easy. He closed his eyes and beamed as he felt the connection settle within him, his body, his mind. His soul. He could feel Varek, the red hot rage always waiting beneath the surface, and the vulnerability of just wanting to be in control of himself that was a constant pressure. Avel was there too, with them, her child-like joy amidst her constant distraction and inability to focus for long.

The connection deepend in unexpected ways. He could feel Avel's hunger, she had forgotten to eat breakfast, so excited she'd been that Kyren was coming to visit. He could feel the ache in Varek's back from his long meditations where he maintained a rigid posture. Avel had scraped her knee recently and the scab itched constantly. Varek had a song stuck in his head, unable to purge it from the background of his awareness, no matter how illogical it seemed.

And more, he could feel the love they had for one another, the fears, the worries, the hopes. It was so much, beyond what the Betazoid could manage even if he wanted to read someone's mind directly.

Ky felt a sudden panic as the connection deepened, drawing them closer than they had ever been before. What did they sense from him? Did they feel how inadequate he feared he was for this mission? His certainty that he would disappoint his new captain, his new crew? The loneliness, oh the loneliness, of standing among so many remarkable people yet always feeling apart from them, wanting nothing more than to simply belong. Superior? The word was almost laughable. He wasn't better than anyone. He wasn't any more stable than Avel, any more in control than Varek. He had simply found a place where his flaws looked like discipline instead of dysfunction. One mistake, one failure, one moment of weakness, and everything he had built would come crashing down, exposing him for the fraud he was...

~You are already perfect, Ky,~ Varek sent, lips unmoving.

~I'm not, but I-,~ he tried to reply, struggling to breathe.

~I wouldn't change a thing,~ came Avel's reassurance.

What a gift, to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were loved. No matter their struggles. No matter their shortcomings. Despite everything, they had this. They had each other.

Varek lowered his hands and let out a shaky breath. The connection swiftly faded, shrank, grew distant. It almost winked out, but some miniscule spark remained in the darkness of their own minds. Ky opened his eyes and saw that the other two were crying. So was he. Crying, but smiling.

They laughed together and came back in for another shared hug, the shorter El-Aurian and Betazoid fitting snugly into their spots under the tall Vulcan's shoulders, arms holding each other close.

"I will be back someday," Ky promised them in a whisper. "I will."

"We will be here," Varek said with a touch of anger slipping through his voice.

"Bring me a present from the other side of the universe?" Avel asked brightly, and Ky nodded and laughed.

"I love you," the three of them said in tandem. Words that had meant so much to them as children, said only to one another before they truly knew what it meant, before anyone else had said it to them and treated them as people. Once again they stepped back.

There were no goodbyes, no more words left to speak. That tiny, infinitesimal connection they now shared was enough. He smiled one last time, wiped away his tears, straightened his uniform, and walked toward the distant silhouette of the transport waiting to take him back to town. From there, he would make his way to the USS Zeus. Whatever waited beyond the wormhole, he would not face it alone. He would carry the stars with him.

 

RSS Feed